Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1887-09-03
FACTS ABOUT FANS.

| FACTS ABOUT FANS.
Some OF tho Most Fashionable and Higl
Priced.
It was written of an English act
|. Assume her fashion if you can
And catch the grace Of her fam
And what countless numbers of CRATE
full breeze compellers are now waving
| over this summer-heated land of ours
"Gauze fans are all the rage thi:
season" said salesman in one of Bos
toms largest retail stores to reporter
"and heliotrope is the favorite shade
The tendency is toward still larger fans
Perhaps the most stylish, and at the
same time the most snowy fan, is one
made of ostrich feathers, with mara
bout aigrette in the center. 1t is called
the Langtry fan by some dealers and by
others the Mary Anderson, and comes
in all colors. It doesn't close up. and
the wavy tips of the feathers make il
very graceful and pretty"
China is called the fatherland of fans
and their use has been traced almost a.
far back as history reaches. While
they are now made of ivory, wood
leather, silk, paper, feathers, ETC., the
earliest fans were probably the leaves
of trees or the wings of birds. Fans
were introduced into England about
the beginning of the sixteenth century
In Shakespeare's day no lady thought
of going abroad without a fan, ana in
speaking of fop in "Love's Labor
Lost, he says:
oh, a most dainty mani
To see him walk before lady and bear fam"
When Elizabeth died the royal ward
robe contained no less than twenty
seven fans. Fan exhibitions have been
given in England, and an opera fan was
once brought out in London giving the
box, numbers, and names of sub
scribers. The Italian fan of the last
century was often finely painted after
some NEUROLOGICAL or sacred subject OF
one of the great masters. The Spanish
fan, nicely colored, represented some
incident OF gallantry or love, the stick
being of mother Of pearl, gaily carved
and gilt. The small Dutch ivory fan
was beautifully painted by one of the
1AaoVOIS VI GuS AOW OOuuplioo, otlIi IuO
German fan possessed marked nation
atty, with its painted ivory stick some
times ingeniously carved corbeille.
In the hand of the Spanish beauty it
is well-known that the fan is made to
express love, hope, disdain, anger, and
other emotions. The dagger fan" OF
China is an instrument for the still
more powerful expression of the feel
ings. It is an elegant imitation in
lacquer of the common folding fan, but
in reality is the sheath of a deadly
blade. The uses of the fan in the
Flowery Kingdom, however, are almost
endless. Maps are printed on the face
and important events are frequently
published by it's means. At the time
of the missionary riots in 1873 at Pekin
popular ill-feeling was excited against
the missionaries by infammatory pic
lures on fans. All over the Empire tho
fan is as much used by men as women.
The folding fan generally obtains, and
it is stuck in the high boot of the full
dressed Chinaman or at the back of the
neck in the collarless jacket OF the
coolie. The schoolmaster raps the
knuckles of unruly boys with it, and
the beggar holds it out for aims. In
the higher Chinese circles white silk
stretched tightly over both sides of a
narrow frame of round, sexagonal,
octagonal, or polygonal form is con-
sidered the ne plus ultra of elegant re.
fnement, especially so when some
charming study in flowers or landscape
painting appears on one side, and a
verse addressed to the friend for whom
it is intended, and signed by the author,
is written on the other. An ode to the
fan by an Oriental poes begins thus:
"By thy aid gentle gales perennial blow"
According to Chinese etiquette, a
Chinaman on horseback or in sedan
chair, meeting an equal of his acquain-
lance on foot, must dismount, be it only
to make passing bow; or two friends
meeting in chairs should both dismount
to salute. But to avoid the inconven-
fence of frequently stopping to dis
mount at the appearance of every
friend, it is allowable to hold the fan so
as to screen the face from view, and the
two may pass without ceremony, or as
if they were strangers. Almost every
large city, and certainly every division
of the Chinese Empire, has it's own
fan.